285 



PERDICID^E. 



PERDICID^E. 



Lopkortyx, Bonap. ; Callipepla, Wagler ; Odontophorus, VieilL ; and 

 Tetra.oga.lltu (Lophophorua of Jardine and Selby), J. E. Gray. 



The birds of this group are widely spread over the earth, no quarter 

 of the globe being without some of the family, all of which are more 

 or less esteemed as affording a nutritious and sapid food to man. 



Perdix (Ray; Sterna, Bonap.). Bill short, strong, naked at the 

 base ; upper mandible convex, deflected towards the lip ; nostrils 

 basal, lateral, the orifice partly concealed by an arched naked scale ; 

 wings short, concave, rounded in form ; the first three feathers shorter 

 than the fourth or fifth, which are the longest in the wing ; tail of 

 fourteen or eighteen feathers, short. 



P. cinerea; Sterna cinerea, Bonap. This well-known object of every 

 European partridge-shooter is too familiar to require description. 



It is the Perdice, Pemisette, Pernigona, and Starna, of the Italians ; 

 Perdris, Perdris Gringette, Perdris Griesche, Perdris Grise, Perdris 

 Gouache, and Perdris des Champs, of the French ; Rebhuhn of the 

 Germans ; Coriar of the Welsh ; Partridge of the English. 



Mr. Gould (and he is corroborated by other authors) considers this 

 species as strictly European, though M. Temminck speaks of it as a 

 visitor to Egypt and the Barbary coast. 



The ardent temperament of the Partridge has been the theme of 

 many writers on natural history from Pliny downwards, and the 

 parental affection of the female for her young seems to be not less 

 strong than the sexual ardour of the male. The rough nest, which is 

 placed on the ground in corn-fields, meadows, &c., contains from 

 twelve to eighteen or even twenty eggs of a greenish ash-colour ; and 

 the hen sits so clost that her head not unfrequently falls before the 

 scythe of the mower, as represented in one of Bewick's admirable cuts. 

 To relate all the anecdotes of the maternal affection of this bird would 

 be endless and indeed the male watches over the young with paternal 

 care : one or two must suffice. Pennant records a strong instance : 

 A partridge, followed by a large covey of very young birds, was sur- 

 prised by a violent shower of rain. " She collected them under her," 

 says Pennant, " and to secure them further, spread her wings to pre- 

 vent every injury. In vain ! The storm increased, yet she would not 

 quit her charge ; she preferred death, and we found her lifeless (with 

 all the little brood) with distended wings, retaining her attempt to 

 preserve them even to the very article of death." Mr. Selby relates 

 that a person engaged in a field not far from bis residence bad his 

 attention arrested by some objects on the ground, which upon 

 approaching be found to be a male and female partridge engaged in 

 battle with a carrion crow : so absorbed were they in the issue of the 

 contest, that they actually held the crow till it was seized and taken 

 from them by the spectator of the scene. Upon search, the very lately 

 hatched young were found concealed among the grass, and the crow 

 had been doubtless attacked by the parents during his attempt to 

 carry off some of their offspring. The wiles and stratagems put in 

 practice by the hen to draw the intruder from the place where her 

 affrighted young have taken refuge are wonderful : she will limp 

 about as if lame of a leg or wing, and so induce one unaccustomed to 

 her deceptions to follow her from the brood, to which she flies back 

 by a circuitous route. White saw a hen partridge come out of a ditch, 

 and run along shivering with her wings, and crying out as if wounded 

 and unable to get from him. While the dam acted this distress, the 

 boy who attended White saw her brood, which was small and unable 

 to fly, run to an old fox-earth for shelter. Markwick too observes that 

 it is not uncommon to see an old partridge feign itself wounded, and 

 run along on the ground fluttering and crying before either dog or 

 man, to draw them away from ite helple-ss unfledged young ones. " I 

 have seen it often," says Markwick, " and once in particular I saw a 

 remarkable instance of the old bird's solicitude to save its brood. As 

 I was hunting a young pointer, the dog ran in on a brood of very 

 small partridges ; the old bird cried, fluttered, and ran tumbling along 

 just before the dog's nose, till she had drawn him to a considerable 

 distance, when she took wing and flew still farther off, but not out ol 

 the field ; on this the dog returned to me, near which place the young 

 ones lay concealed in the grass, which the old bird no sooner perceived 

 than she flew back again to us, settled just before the dog's nose 

 again, and by rolling and tumbling about drew off his attention from 

 her young, and thus preserved her brood a second time. I have also 

 seen, when a kite has been hovering over a covey of young partridges, 

 the old birds fly up at the bird of prey, screaming and fighting with 

 all their might to preserve their brood." 



Aristotle describes bis Perdix as tumbling about to draw intruders 

 from her neat, and fixing their attention till the young have time to 

 escape. ('Hist. Aniin.,' if. 8.) 



The pairing time is generally about the beginning of February, bu1 

 notwithstanding the ardour of these birds, the attachment soon 

 seems to be directed to another object, if any accident happen to tha 

 first selected ; at least as far as the female is concerned. White 

 mention* a sportsman whose zeal for the increase of his game being 

 greater than his humanity, he, after pairing time, always shot the cock 

 bird of every couple of partridges upon his grounds, supposing that 

 the rivalry of many males interrupted the breed : he used to say, tha< 

 though he had widowed the same hen several times, yet he found sh< 

 was still provided with a fresh paramour that did not take her away 

 from her haunt The same delightful author states that he knew a 



over of setting, an old sportsman, who had often told him that soon 

 ifter harvest he had frequently taken small coveys of partridges, con- 

 sisting of cock birds alone, which he pleasantly used to call old 

 mchelors. It thus appears that the number of males much exceeds 

 that of the females : the rivalry between the amorous combatants in 

 ;he spring and their battles are long and bloody would seem to be 

 the usual provision to secure the strongest males for the continuation 

 of the species. They roost on the ground together, generally in large 

 ields far from hedges or coverts, probably, as White observes, to 

 secure themselves from pole-cats and stoats. There are accidental 

 pied or whitish varieties. 



\ 



y-sji 



"<\Jfjrr 



Common Partridge (Perdix cinerea), 



The above form has been separated from the other partridges, Perdix 

 Graca, Briss., P. rubra, P. petrosa, &c., by Prince C. L. Bonaparte. 

 The first of these (P. taxatili of Meyer, La Bartavelle) is most 

 probably the rif'p8i of Aristotle. All these, which are European, as 

 well as P. Chuiar from the Himalaya Mountains, have a rudimentary 

 blunt spur on the tarsus, which, with their general plumage and red 

 legs and bill, seem to justify the Prince's separation. 



The Greek Partridge inhabits the Alps, the Tyrol, Switzerland, Italy, 

 Turkey, and the Grecian Archipelago. P. petrosa (the Barbary Par- 

 tridge) is common on that part of the African coast and in the southern 

 portions of Europe, especially those which are washed by the Mediter- 

 ranean Sea, In the mountainous parts of Spain, and in the islands of 

 Majorca and Minorca, Sardinia, Corsica, Malta, and Sicily, it is 

 abundant ; but it is rare in France, and not known in the north of 

 Europe. P. rubra, the Common Red-Legged or Guernsey Partridge, 

 is abundant in France and Italy, rare in Switzerland, and still rarer in 

 Germany and Holland. Mr. Gould observes that it is confined to tb j 

 European continent and the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, but M. 

 Temminck (' Manuel,' part iv.) states that it is fouud in Japan, where 

 it was observed by Dr. Von Siebold and M. Burger, identical in form 

 and colour of plumage. It has been introduced into our preserves, 

 and is now rather plentiful in some parts, especially in Suffolk. But 

 we doubt whether those who have introduced it have much reason to 

 be pleased with the importation. They persecute almost to extermi- 

 nation the Common Partridge (Sterna cinerea), a much better bird, 

 whether regard be had to the sports of the field or the pleasures of 

 the table. They are most determined runners, and few birds are more 

 calculated to injure the behaviour of a well-bred and well-broken 

 pointer or setter than the Red-Legged Partridge; if anything can 

 make him puzzle, that partridge will. Though the flesh is not to 

 juicy as that of the Common Partridge, a well fed plump young Red- 

 Legged Partridge, split down the back and broiled upon a good clear 

 fire, is not bad eating. It is probably the Perdix of the Romans. 

 Martial (xiii. 76), in allusion to the insane epicurism of the Romans, 

 which seems to have valued price more than flavour, says 

 " Carior est Perdix : sic sapit ilia magis." 



francolinws, Briss; Pternwta, Wagler; C/uetopus, Swainson. Bill 

 stout, moderate in size, convex above, and slightly curved downwards 

 at the tip. Nostrils basal, lateral, partially closed by a naked over- 

 arching membrane. Tail of twelve feathers, moderate, slightly rounded. 

 Feet naked, 4-toed, tarsi of the male armed with strong blunt spurs. 



The rudimentary spurs of the Red-Legged Partridges become in the 

 Francolins well developed. 



The species occur on the old coutiuent and its islands. The form 

 occurs in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The Francolins are forest birds, 

 perch on trees, and feed on seeds, bulbs, &c. 



P. vulgaris, the European Francolin, Lo Francolin H Collier Roux of 

 the French, Francolino of the Italians, is a fine and handsome bird ; 

 and the plumage of the adult male is rich. 



Mr. Gould, who has given beautiful figures of the male and female, 



